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LG Mobile Obituary
LG tried to compete in the very competitive smartphone market, and they might not be missed but the company did make some contributions both positive and negative. Some of these things LG tried were complete flops, like the modular concept for the LG G5, or the hand vein scanning of the LG G8, but there were some features that have become the industry standards. Here are seven trends — listed in order of significance — LG smartphones started that are now common, expected features of the modern-day smartphone.
LG tried to compete in the very competitive smartphone market, and they might not be missed but the company did make some contributions both positive and negative. Some of these things LG tried were complete flops, like the modular concept for the LG G5, or the hand vein scanning of the LG G8, but there were some features that have become the industry standards. Here are seven trends — listed in order of significance — LG smartphones started that are now common, expected features of the modern-day smartphone.
- Capacitive Touchscreen-- the original iPhone altered the course of the smartphone industry. But the narrative that it practically re-invented the touchscreen for the smartphone era is not entirely accurate. The LG Prada (or known by its codename LG KE850 in some regions) actually launched months before the first iPhone, and it featured a capacitive touchscreen too. This makes the LG Prada the first smartphone to use a touchscreen. Of course, Apple’s multi-touch which offered gestures like pinch-to-zoom is more refined, but if we are purely talking about who got there first, it was LG, not Apple.
- Ultra-wide Angle Camera -- The ultra-wide-angle camera is a must-have feature for all smartphones at any price range today but there was a two-year window when LG was the only smartphone brand offering it. The ultra-wide lens made its debut on the LG G5 during the spring of 2016, and it wasn’t until the fall of 2018 before the next Android brand (Huawei) adopted the lens. Samsung and Apple both jumped on the ultra-wide bandwagon in spring and fall of 2019 respectively.
Figure 1: Ultra-wide Angle Camera
- Removing front hardware buttons for thinner bezels -- Every smartphone nowadays — even budget ones — has a face that’s almost entirely screen. LG was the first to provide the feature
Figure 2: Exit Hardware Buttons
- LG G2 -- released in September of 2013, it was the first to eliminate the physical buttons on the front for a cleaner look. Samsung and Apple wouldn’t make this same move until 2017 with the Galaxy S8 and iPhone X respectively.
Figure 3: LG G3 and the iPhone 6 Plus Side-By-Side
- Manual/Pro Camera Mode – providing point-and-shoot without thinking and churn out a good shot most of the time. That’s exactly the philosophy Apple and Google live by, hence their basic, almost bare-bones camera apps. But some enthusiasts want more control and the G3’s “manual mode,” which gave users the ability to tweak settings like white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and focus area. A little more than a year later, LG would add manual controls to video shooting too in the V10.
Figure 4: LG V10
- Manual mode, now perhaps better known as “Pro Mode,” can be found in virtually every Android smartphone, except the Pixel, of course.
- Quad HD Resolution Display. The LG G3 was the first phone to offer Quad HD resolution (1440 x 2560) back when phone screens maxed out at 1080p. It led to mediocre battery life, but that screen looked oh so crisp back in 2014 I put up with it anyway, just like how I put up with the middling battery life of the OnePlus 9 Pro because WQHD+ and 120Hz.
Figure 5: LG G3
- Longer/Taller Aspect Ratio -- LG’s was the first to use a taller/narrower 18:9 aspect ratio (instead of the longstanding 16:9) with 2017’s G6 important because it allowed phone screens to keep inching upwards without making it too wide to hold. Samsung’s Galaxy S8 also deserves credit for pushing for an 18:9 aspect ratio too, but the LG G6 was introduced weeks before Samsung’s device.
- Double-tap to Wake/Lock -- By moving the home button away from the front of the phone, LG introduced and easier way for users to wake the phone screen by double-tapping on the screen to wake or lock. It’s faster and requires less finger reach than pressing a side-mounted power button and is also far more difficult to accidentally trigger than
LG was always willing to try new things — for better and for worse
There are myriad reasons for the demise of LG’s smartphone business. Its marketing could be hit and miss (remember the insistence on adding “ThinQ” to their phone names?) and it had some unfortunate hardware misfires like the bootloop issue with the G4. But ultimately I think the gigantic flop of the G5’s modular experiment, along with other niche experiments like the previously mentioned hand vein scanning led to consumers and media thinking of LG phones as “gimmicky”. LG also backtracked on its hardware decisions, which doesn’t exactly instill confidence when you hope to build a long-life ecosystem. LG’s exit from the smartphone market is unfortunate because, for every failed gimmick, there were three-four genuinely useful features that stuck. And of course, as I said at the beginning, I thought the LG Wing was genuinely useful.
Figure 7: LG G5
